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Feb. 19, 2010

To end the week rather smoothly and not to be outdone by its rival Verizon Wireless, telecom giant AT&T announced today that it is opening up three of what it calls "Innovation Centers" to support LTE deployment across its wireless network.

AT&T's news comes about eleven months after Verizon Wireless announced a similar effort to accelerate the development of LTE technology for its customers.

Both AT&T's and Verizon's Innovation Centers will include the participation of the operators' LTE infrastructure providers Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson.

AT&T's Innovation Centers will support the operator's LTE trials and testing as well as provide a space for the company to work with mobile apps developers, handset makers, MID (mobile Internet device) manufacturers and wireless equipment vendors.

In a similar fashion, Verizon's LTE Innovation Center supports the development of non-traditional products for use on LTE networks. Overall, Verizon's Center is focused specifically on consumer electronics and appliances, machine-to-machine (M2M) products in the areas of healthcare, security and utility metering and telematics.

The centers will include dedicated facilities and staffing focused on the development of mobile applications and services as well as prototyping and equipment testing. They will focus on enabling integrated mobile and wired broadband capabilities across smartphones, PCs, televisions and other mobile devices.

Two of the AT&T's centers will be located in the United States while the 3rd center will be located at an unnamed location.

Additional details on the facilities' locations and staffing will be announced in mid-July.

AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan says "collaborative innovation is at the heart of Internet broadband today, and it will be even more critical in the years to come as we work to ensure that customers get the most out of mobile broadband platforms like LTE and service platforms like U-verse IPTV."

Donovan added "the LTE centers will provide an opportunity for AT&T's network engineers to work directly with others in the wireless industry to design, build, evaluate and perfect new mobile apps and services as broadband networks continue to evolve in the next 3 to 5 years."

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Source: AT&T.